1968 Boston Celtics

Red Auerbach had handed the bench to Russell, who kept playing center while calling the rotations. Boston went 54-28 and finished behind the 62-20 76ers, the same Philadelphia team that had dethroned them the year before.

John Havlicek led the scoring at better than 20 a game, and Bailey Howell gave them a reliable second option up front. Sam Jones still produced in the backcourt, and Larry Siegfried ran the offense. Russell's value never showed up cleanly in a box score, but the defense did.

The rematch with Philadelphia turned the season. Down 3-1, the Celtics won three in a row, the last 100-96 in Philadelphia, becoming the first NBA team to climb out of a 3-1 hole in a best-of-seven. The Finals against the Lakers went six games.

No Finals MVP was awarded in 1968. The lasting note is the coaching arrangement: Russell remains one of the few player-coaches to win it all, and he did it twice.

The league was smaller than it is today, but the 1968 playoffs still required beating the best teams in the division and then the other side of the bracket. Title paths from this era are shorter on paper than a modern run, yet the Finals still decided the champion.

The starting five was Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Sam Jones, Bailey Howell, and Larry Siegfried. Tom Sanders coached the group with Don Nelson as the primary bench scorer.

This was title number 3 in a Boston Celtics run that stretched across consecutive or near-consecutive seasons. Repeat winners carried continuity from one year to the next.

The full roster ran deeper than the headline names. Role players who mattered included Wayne Embry (veteran backup center behind Russell); Tom Thacker (reserve wing); Mal Graham (rookie guard).

The 1968 playoffs ran through divisional rounds before the Finals. The Boston Celtics still needed four series wins in many years, but the league had fewer teams than the 30-franchise map used today.

The Boston Celtics share a lineage with other banners from 1957, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1981, 1984, 1986, 2008, 2024. Compare those seasons on the franchise hub to see how the roster and style changed between title runs.

Looking back, the 1967-68 Boston Celtics finished second in the East at 54-28, then beat the Lakers in six to win the title. Bill Russell did it as a player-coach, the first man to win a championship running the team from the floor. The road there was the hard part: Boston trailed Philadelphia three games to one in the division finals before winning three straight.

For the full roster beyond the featured starters, see the table on this page. For other Boston Celtics titles, use the franchise hub linked below.